July-November
2001
I began searching for someone to do paint and body work shortly
after I purchased Maych.
I called around to a few of the more popular paint and body shops, but
they were not particularly interested in doing "classic
restorations". Their bread-and-butter was insurance work
and they simply didn't have the time or inclination to tackle these
kinds of jobs. So, I began looking around for shops that did
classic restorations. There were two shops in the yellow pages
whose advertisements stated they did classic restorations. One
Saturday morning I called one of the shops, Auto
Kraft, to make an appointment for them to take a look at Maych
and give me an estimate. The owner answered the phone and said
they were not normally open on Saturday, but he was at the shop doing
a little paper work. I told him I could be there in 10 minutes
and he said bring him down and he would take a look.
Well, I spent the next 2 hours at
his shop while he talked about and showed me pictures of his past
restorations. The restorations were impressive, but somehow I
got the feeling he was going to be way out of my league. I noted
that all of the restorations he had done were owned by doctors,
lawyers, or other people of considerably more means than I had.
Finally, on pretense that I had to get going, I asked him how much he
estimated to do the body work and paint on Maych. He said Maych
was a fine candidate for restoration, but that he was not interested
in doing anything but a "first-rate" job. I figured
"first-rate" meant expensive. After a few more minutes
of telling me how his work is different than the normal
"run-of-the-mill" body guys, he finally said he would
estimate the cost at around $8500. I thanked him for his time
and told him I'd think it over. But in reality, there was
nothing to think over. I wasn't about to spend $8500 on paint
and body work.
After work a couple of weeks later,
I stopped by the other "restoration" shop listed in the
yellow pages. The name of the place was Hinkle's Auto Body Shop
and it appeared to be a lower cost operation than Auto
Kraft. The shop is owned by a young man named Jason Hinkle
and it is more or less a one-man operation. We talked a
little while and Jason said he could do the work for between $3000 and
$5000. This was much better than the price I got at Auto
Kraft, but it was still a little more than I was wanted to
pay. I told Jason that the price was more than I had anticipated
and I would need to think it over. He said that was fine but let
him know fairly soon, because he was running a backlog of about 6
months.
Over the next couple of months I
"chased" down other leads for someone to do the paint a body
work. I was hoping to find someone that did this kind of work as
a sideline. Someone that liked to restore old vehicles,
but didn't really need the work to make a living - kind of a professional
amateur, if there is such a thing. I put out feelers on the 67-72
chevytrucks forum, asked friends and co-workers, and asked around
at swap meets, but couldn't seem to run down anybody.
Then, one day at work, a co-worker
told me he knew a guy in Crete Nebraska that worked for the Sheriff's
Department and did body and paint work on the side. Crete is a
small town about 25 miles southwest of Lincoln, so it was within a
reasonable distance. He gave me the guy's phone number and I
called him and asked if he would be interested. He said he would
like to look at Maych, so we agreed to meet at his shop
that weekend.
From the directions he gave me, I
knew he lived a little ways outside of town. I expected to find
a small acreage, strewn with the remains of old car bodies, engine
parts, and other assorted junk. You know the kind of place I'm
talking about - the kind with parts vehicles parked up on blocks,
engine carcasses and drive train parts scattered around, and at least
2 junk yard dogs chained in the yard. Boy was I wrong!
His place was as pretty an acreage
as you'll ever see -- nicely landscaped and very well
manicured grounds; a newly built, large ranch-style house; and the
garage and shop where both new and very well maintained. There
were two dogs in the yard, but they were Dalmatians, not junk yard
dogs, and they weren't chained up. He was mowing the lawn when I
drove in. I I stopped in the drive and he drove his riding mower
over to the truck and we introduced ourselves. He told me to
drive the truck down to the shop and he'd have a look.
I drove Maych
down to the shop and parked by the front door. While I was
waiting for Alan (Alan Moore is his name), I peeked a look inside the
shop. This was no ordinary, handyman's garage. The shop
was fully equipped to due body work and had a spectacular paint booth.
But what you really noticed was how clean and tidy it was. It
looked more like a place to hold VFW meetings than one that was used
to do paint and body work. Needless to say, I was
impressed.
Alan looked over Maych
and then asked me what my plans for him were. I told him my
plans were to keep Maych as original as possible,
including paint. What I wanted was for someone to replace the
rusted body parts (rockers, cab corners), fix dings, dents, and
repaint to original color. He said he would be willing to do the
job if I wasn't in a hurry. I told him Maych was
not a daily driver, and if the price was right, he could take all the
time he wanted. I also told him I was willing to help anyway he
needed. We sort of agreed on a rough price and he said he wanted
to do it as a winter project, because he was so busy in the
summer. I said that would be fine and told him to give me a call
when he was ready to start.
Alan called in November 2001 and
said he was ready to start on Maych. I drove Maych
down to Alan's shop that weekend. and we began the work to return him
to his former glory. I will chronicle that work in the next few
episodes.
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